Data in the News is part of TeachingWithData.org, a portal of teaching and learning resources for infusing quantitative literacy into the social science curriculum in both K-12 and Post-Secondary settings.
Here, we highlight current events and news articles and the data they reference.

Energy Generation in the U.S.

According to data published by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Department of Commerce, two handfuls of state produce half of all of the renewable and nonrenewable energy in the country. States such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana are leaders in nonrenewable energy. Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are leaders in renewable energy. Surprisingly, there are several states which support both industries: New York, Michigan, Illinois, Texas, and California.

The graphic illustrates that the greatest number of generation establishments are housed in the fossil fuel sector while the least are housed in the geothermal sector. On average, nearly 57% of these establishments exist within the nonrenewable industry. Only 43% exist in the renewable industry. From this data we can extrapolate that the greatest proportion of our electricity is generated using non-renewable energy.

This is no surprise as energy policy in the United States is, at best, a mixed bag. Historically, a mixture of different economic measures have been taken to hinder the growth of the nonrenewable sector; however, this plan has caused only confusion and halted development in both the renewable and nonrenewable sectors.